We went to see the movie Easy A last night.
Casting adults to play the role of teens is nothing new. Neither is writing adult dialogue for teens to recite. (At the behest of Hollywood writers, kids do say the darndest things.)
But it did make us wonder: who are these ageless, genderless mutants on the screen and for whom was this movie made?
First, the characters were thoroughly uncanny. Droids. Clones. Replicants. You will know them by their quips. An Invasion of the Culturally Jewish Liberal Body Snatchers.
Second, the movie is an unabashed pastiche of other teen movies. It not only references them it actually cuts to scenes from other teen movies.
Being self-aware, however, is no guarantee that you will transcend your own condition. If anything, it can be a hallmark of bad faith.
Rather than being a remarkable or reliable account of coming-of-age, this movie, like so many others (e.g., Juno), is a subgenre onto itself. The teen drag performance: adults knowingly performing in the guise of adolescents for other fans of impersonation.
update: as opposed to movies about adolescents.